Alkhazurovo villagers complain about Russian soldiers’ conduct

Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus - Alkhazurovo villagers have decided to seek legal action against general-major G. A. Gajiyev, the Urus-Martan district military commander, claiming he had beaten a pregnant woman.

The incident took place at the former state-run farm “Trud”. After the village had been sealed off by Russian soldiers on October 8, a temporary filtration point was established there. All the gathered male population up to the age of 60 had to kneel and any movement led to beating by submachine gun butts. Besides, many of the detained were tortured by electricity.

Witnesses reported that Gajiyev grabbed pregnant forty-year-old Raisa Murtaliyeva out of the group of women protesting against the “filtration”, and beat her up with his arms and legs, which led her hospitalisation and miscarriage of the baby. Consequently, the villagers filed a letter of complaint against commander Gajiyev to the Attorney General of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Ustinov.

Although the Urus-Martan military command said that all who underwent the “filtration” procedure have been freed, Salamu Shalayev, 24, and Khasolt Sugaipov, 50, are unaccounted for.

The above-mentioned incident was not the first one in Alkhazurovo. For example, on September 9, Russian soldiers detained Zaynap Tsankayeva’s son Aslan Tsankayev and her nephew Ramzan Tsankayev, both at the age of sixteen, claiming they are going to take their finger-prints. Tsankayeva sought help at the district administration, commandment as well as attorney’s office, but no success has achieved yet. In addition, Shavanov brothers and Said Akhmadov, who were detained by federal forces on August 15 and September 24, respectively, have been unaccounted-for since then.

The inhabitants of Alkhazurovo say they are dismayed at Russian soldiers’ conduct because unlike many other settlements in Chechnya’s mountains and at their foothills, Alhkazurovo has not seen a single attack against a pro-Moscow official since the beginning of the war.

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